Day 8: Shillingstone to Maiden Newton

We left Shillingstone armed with a packed lunch (thanks to Carol from the Willows tea rooms) knowing that there would be little chance of encountering any shops or pubs or other places for getting food or water up on the Ridgeway.

The Ridgeway, as the name suggests, is mostly high up with spectacular views over Dorset. However there are plenty of times where we had to change from one ridge to another. This involved significant dropping down into a valley in order to climb back up to the next ridge.

We are building towards the kinds of ups and downs we're likely to encounter on the coast path in the next few days, so we see it all as a nice progression. We definitely did this walk in the right direction - heading towards the west - both because of building up to the tougher walks and because the cold easterly winds are behind us.

Day 7: Berwick St John to Shillingstone

Saturday's walk felt like spring was finally in the air after all the unseasonably chilly and wet weather recently.

Starting with a lovely view over the village of Berwick St John after climbing the hill and then past lush meadows and through woodland, into green valleys and over ridges.

There were quite a lot of ascents and descents throughout the day, but it didn't feel like we'd been climbing as much as it looks from the route profile on our "Share Your Adventure" map -
http://www.shareyouradventure.com/map/os/2WalkTo/London-to-Totnes-Walk

We landed a lucky find with accommodation in a lovely 18th century cottage in Shillingstone.

Day 6: Salisbury to Berwick St John.

Half way to Totnes!

We left Salisbury after a fairly leisurely start. We climbed the hill out of the city and picked up the Shaftesbury Drove. It was virtually a straight line along the ridge from here all the way to Berwick St John.

The pictures don't do it justice, but the views from up there were stunning in many places. The sun was in and out all day - when it was out it was really OUT.

At the end of the walk our fantastic CouchSurfing hosts Roz, Richard and Algy met us and took us to their house and made us a delicious meal. The best part of this trip has been the wonderful people we have met along the way. Everyone has really rallied round and gone out of their way to help us.

If you are not familiar with the CouchSurfing project it is well worth getting involved, either as a "surfer" or as a host - see www.couchsurfing.com for more info.

Next stop, we push onwards into Dorset!

"We Do What We Can"

Our very good friend and brilliant musician Zoe Konez has released 3 songs, and all profits from sales are going to the 2WalkTo charities.

Zoe is a London-based performer, song writer and community musician. Find out more about Zoe via her website, Facebook page and Twitter.

Download the music for free, or on a pay-what-you-want basis, from http://zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

After chatting to Will and Alex about their adventure Zoe felt inspired and wrote 3 songs in a day.

She decided she would record them herself at home and put them out to the world to promote the 2WalkTo trip.

You can download the tracks for free if you wish, but if you do donate any money, it will go to the two chosen charities.

Day 5: Kings Somborne to Salisbury

Amazing day walking the Clarendon Way. The last 2 miles into Salisbury were nice and easy to navigate - we just headed directly towards the cathedral spire.

You can view our progress each day almost live via the Track Our Progress page.

We're nearly at the half way point!

Get your copy of the charity EP by Zoe Konez from zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

Here are a few photos from today's walk:

Day 4: Alresford to Kings Somborne

We walked the remaining part of the Three Castles Path to Winchester then onwards along the Clarendon Way to the village of Kings Somborne.

In Winchester the end of the Three Castles Path is the Great Hall (last remaining part of the old castle) with its famous round table.

We were presented with a seal of completion for getting to the end of the path and a set of postcards of scenes from along the route - a nice surprise we weren't expecting. We'll do something with the postcards - we'll send you a thank you letter for supporting our walk.

Later on,  after reaching Kings Somborne we had another surprise - a very kind donation from a couple who saw our Macmillan and RMH Bristol t-shirts and got talking about the walk. So thank you Mr and Mrs Read.

We were mentioned in community magazine "Beyond Bude' today - you can read the article here: http://budeandbeyond.co.uk/it-would-be-quicker-to-walk/ Thanks to Jenny.

Another mention has to go to super star Dan for hosting us tonight and letting us couchsurf.

Possibly the biggest news of the day is that Zoe Konez has released a 3-track EP inspired by the walk. She's putting it out on a pay-what-you-want basis and all money raised from the sales goes to our 2WalkTo charities. More details about the charity EP tomorrow - but in the meantime here's the link to download: zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

Lots has happened today. Did I forget to mention the amazing, beautiful and stunning scenery?!

Here are a few photos from Day 4...

Day 3: Winchfield to New Alresford

Tuesday's walk in pictures...

Find more photos on our Twitter and Facebook pages

Sponsorship update

Hello from New Alresford in Hampshire. It's day 4 of our walk!

We wanted to say the biggest thank you to everyone that has sponsored us and for all the amazing messages. 

So far we've raised nearly £1000 for our 2 charities, with plenty more pledges for when we finish the walk.

The sponsorship page stays open for a couple of months after we finish the walk.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walktotnes

We've got badges to give you...

Day 2: Windsor to Winchfield

Yesterday's walk in pictures.

Castle number one of three on the Three Castles Path!

The route : Windsor - Ascot - Sandhurst - Winchfield

Day 1: London to Windsor

Starting in Brentford we picked up the Grand Union Canal and followed it pretty much all the way to Windsor.

We passed over some aqueducts, under some motorways and over quite a lot of railways. At one point we had all three bridges at once (railway below the canal and a road over the top).

We walked about 18 miles, to add to the first 10, so we're now 28 miles into the walk - over 10% of the total!  That makes it all seem quite a small amount, I'm sure we can do 10 times what we've just done.  Is that how it works?

In other news

These amazing handmade badges arrived thanks to Karen and Rupert, and we'll be able to give everyone who sponsors us or people we meet along the way one of these.

If you would like a badge please send us a message via the comments below, or Facebook or Twitter

Day (minus) 1: Parks and paths of London

This is it... The walk begins...

We started here, at the statue of Charles I at Charing Cross. It's the point to which all distances to London are measured, making it the official centre of London.

The more famous landmark of Mr Nelson can be seen towering above.

Hang on, you've started walking already?

Yes! With the threat of some rather unreasonable weather we thought it might be a good idea to start the walk a day early.

We've split the first day into two, to save our feet from too much hard surface walking.

Remember this time last year we had a drought and a hose pipe ban? This year it's the opposite. Sleet and snow and lots of rain.... It can only get better, right?

Hillside swamp trail

The North Downs Way

Otford to Oxted

We took the train to Otford in Kent and strolled into a little shop to pick up some supplies.  We should have known by the shopkeeper's tone when she said "I can see you haven't been across the fields yet" that we were about to let ourselves in for a very waterlogged walk.

There were some pretty good hills involved in this training walk, although most of the time was spent trying not to slide back down.

The rain held off and the sun came out. The breath taking scenery from on top of the Downs made all the efforts well worthwhile.

At times walking 15 miles felt more like 50 - partly to do with some missing North Downs Way signage and partly to do with the squelchy underfoot conditions.

We'll have to revisit the North Downs Way in the summer and complete some more of this great trail.  For more info about the North Downs Way see www.nationaltrail.co.uk/northdowns

Why this walk?

Will and Alex are embarking on a 250-mile walk from London to Devon in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and RMH Bristol.  Find out why

Can you spare a few pounds?  Sponsor at Virgin Money Giving

One week to go!

It's the final countdown to the big walk.

Thank you to everyone that has already sponsored us and all the messages on the sponsorship page.

Training update

Yesterday we pushed 20 miles in just over 5 hours, which was possibly slightly over-doing it. Feeling the after affects today!

Fortunately there will be less time pressure when we're doing the real walk, so we can spread the miles out over the full day. Good to know we can push a fast pace if we need to, though.

What weird weather, all 4 seasons in one day! At least there are a few signs that the sun might come out and stay out...

Sponsorship update

The countdown to the walk is ticking! Just 2 weeks to go until we set off on this big adventure.

Sponsorship has been rolling in. The fundraising thermometer on the Virgin Money Giving sponsorship page is nearly at the half way mark.

It's great to see all the support for raising money for 2 really fantastic charities, and even though we set the fairly ambitious target of raising £1500 we think we'll get there.

A huge thank you to everyone that has sponsored us so far!

Keep in touch with our progress on our Facebook page and via Twitter

Totnes Walk Video

Share this video to show your support!

Training continues...

Just 3 weeks to go until we set off on our epic walk.

We've both bought new walking boots (hooray!).  The other day we took them out and initiated them with mud.

Richmond Park

Visiting Richmond Park for the first time is one of those "why have I never been here before" moments. It's easy to forget you're in London.  It felt more like being on Dartmoor than being in the city.

Our training walk took us from Richmond station through the town to the riverside. Climbing up the hill, we reached Richmond Park and followed a route we'd created using a new GPS route app.  Embracing the technology!

We didn''t spot any of Richmond Park's famous deer (perhaps we weren't looking in the right places). However we did see plenty of these noisy characters...

And should you want to fly model aircraft, apparently this is the place to do it... As long as you observe this board which looks like it has been there since the birth of flight.

 

What's this in aid of?

In 3 weeks time Will and Alex are embarking on a 250-mile walk from London to Devon in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and RMH Bristol.  Find out why

Can you spare a few pounds?  Sponsor at Virgin Money Giving